NPA Rebels Raid South RP Village, Kill Militia Leader

Some 2,000 people join an anti-NPA rally Saturday, March 29, 2008 in Tambulig town in Zamboanga del Sur province in southern RP. (Photos by Armed Forces’ 4th Civil Relations Group)

DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Mar. 29, 2008) – Communist insurgents raided a southern Philippine village and killed a pro-government militia they held hostage before fleeing to the jungle, military reports said.

It said about two dozen gunmen, which belong to the New People’s Army (NPA), attacked the village in Monkayo town in Compostela Valley province late Friday. The insurgents seized the militia, who is also the village chieftain, and then executed him.

The gunmen warned villagers against helping government soldiers and threatened to kill civilians who would provide information to the military about the NPA, armed wing of the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).

The CPP broke off peace talks with Manila in 2004 after the United States on the government’s prodding, listed the communist groups as foreign terrorist organizations and froze their assets abroad.

The CPP also ordered its forces to intensify attacks on government and military targets as part of its new offensive. “The main purpose of intensifying the tactical offensives is to seize weapons and increase the number of Red fighters and fighting units of the NPA.”

“Certain enterprises, such as mining and logging firms and certain installations are targeted by the NPA because these are detrimental to the interest of the people. By attacking these, the NPA compels the enemy to deploy guard units at separate places, each one of which or whose line of supply is vulnerable to further offensive actions by the NPA,” it said in a statement Wednesday which coincided with the 39th anniversary of the NPA.

While the CPP hailed the success of the NPA offensives in the countryside, more than 2,000 people, mostly sympathetic to the military, held an indignation rally in Tambulig town in Zamboanga del Sur province, on the other side of Compostela Valley.

The villagers denounced the NPA atrocities and vowed to support the government’s anti-insurgency campaign, according to Major Gamal Hayudini, new commander of the military’s 4th Civil Relations Group. “People are sick and tired of the NPA atrocities and they want peace to reign in the country, free from the clutches of terrorism,” Hayudini told the Mindanao Examiner.

He said the rally, organized by the pro-democracy group called National Alliance for Democracy, was supported by provincial officials and village chieftains from Tambulig town.

Some of those who joined the rally also burned an effigy of CPP founder Jose Maria Sison, now in exile in the Netherlands.

“The people are sick and tired of the deception of communist rebels. Their so called 39th anniversary is irrational since there is nothing to rejoice for people only out of their minds merry for deaths, collecting revolutionary taxes from local folks and taking away the future of youths where they turn innocent children as child warriors who will fight for a senseless and selfish cause,” NAD National Secretary General Roel Dago-oc.

The NPA is fighting for the establishment of a Maoist state in the Philippines. (Mindanao Examiner)